Kitten with seriously dodgy eye

PinkTulips

Hey, wondering if anyone can give me any tips to make this little guy more comfortable.

He's had gunky eyes on and off since i found him at the side of the road 3 weeks ago. He had 8 days of antibiotics without huge success but i wormed him this week in the hope that if he was a bit healthier he could fight the infection better and the left eye cleared up completely. I was still cleaning the right with salt water to try and clear it up yesterday.

Today at about 4pm my daughter came up to me and told me 'Dude's eye is red mommy' so i went and checked it out and the upper inner eyelid has swollen so badly it's protruding from the eye in a big way.... at first glance it looks like his eyeball is popping out it's so bad :eek:

I threw him in the carrier and dashed into town and tried one vet where the receptionist told me the vet wasn't there and as the kitten looked lively she wouldn't call him for me, come back in the morning :mad: I went to the other vet, who's mostly a large animal vet which is why he wasn't my first choice, and he gave him a high dose antibiotic injection and a tube of ointment which on closer inspection appears to be ointment for udders of milking cows

he told me if it's not improved in a week he'd suggest we PTS as 'there's no point removing the eyeball'

so 2 questions:
What can i do to make him more comfortable right now
Is the vet right? Surely a young kitten can adjust very well to living with one eye?

Sigma Force

Cripes, still suprises me that some vets have that attitude it shouldn't matter what type of animal it is at the end of the day they should be able to do the basics for small animals or at least refer people on.

Poor cat, is there another vet you can get to. It's important the proper treatment is given the eye might still be saved if treated properly.
If the kitten has to loose an eye then he can live perfectly well (ideally as an indoor cat) with one eye. It'll just look like he's winking all the time.

Hate vets with that kind of attitude to cats makes me so angry, you must be so frustrated you're trying to do what's best for the little guy and paying people for proffessional opinions and getting garbage back.

Is that ointment he gave you working, eyes are so sensative. If the ointment that vet gave causes severe pain or damage or is not suitable for cats eyes I'd go back and demand your money back. If they don't know what to treat it with then they do more damage giving you the wrong thing.

PinkTulips

i won't enrage you further by telling you about when he spayed my female then... he's a lovely man but very much a big animal vet and hasn't much interest in the small ones

the eye is looking slightly better i think, hard to tell because it looks so shocking. not sure if that's due to the ABs or his mad ointment though.

Dude doesn't like it being put on but then i can't imagine it's comfortable being touched in that area at all so i don't think it's the ointment, it doesn't seem to irritate him once he's clawed his way out of my arms and gone to sulk in the corner, he gives it a swipe of two with his paw and then goes to sleep.

he's in good form, purring and mad to get outside to sun himself on the path all evening.

fintonie

all I can say is LMAO.

star-pants

fintonie has been warned

Trail_Blazer

My girl Skye (7 yr old feline) had that same thing. She came down sick, and I came home to find the same thing your describing. Though she was very lethargic and not herself.

The eye/eyelid was very swollen and red. I took her to the vet, and they gave me a tube of cream to put on her eye, until it was gone or cleared up. It's too bad the one vet wasn't around to help him out.

Star-pants, thanks for warning fintonie. I hate when people are cruel and laugh at animals being hurt or sick.

PinkTulips

well if it's still looking disasterous in the morning i'll bring him down to the other vet as that one is more used to dealing with small animals, i just wasn't comfortable leaving it overnight without him being seen by any vet at all.

poor guy, his chances of being rehomed are getting slimmer by the day if this doesn't get sorted, and i'm getting so fond of him it'll break my heart to give him up now..... think he might end up being a permanent resident unless i can find him a perfect home

boomerang

Sorry, double post!

boomerang

PinkTulips, your kitten will adapt just fine if the eyeball has to be removed, but it probably won't come to that.

There are different diseases that cause eye problems in cats. The most common would be feline herpesvirus (FHV) or feline calicivirus (FCV). Both viruses cause cat flu and the kitten will usually also develop a secondary bacterial eye infection.

FHV tends to create more severe symptoms and it can take a longer course of antibiotics than FCV to clear up. (If your kitten is diagnosed with cat flu your vet could swab your kitten to find out exactly which of these two viruses is the cause but most vets won't bother as either way the treatment is the same.)

Alternatively, your kitten could have feline chlamydophila, which is a bacterial infection. You'd be talking about a course of antibiotics three to four weeks long to clear this.

Bear in mind that all of the above infections are cat-specific so you're not at risk. But do wash your hands carefully after washing Dude's eyes or you could spread the infection to your other cats and kittens. If he is sneezing you need to be careful about your clothing also.


If the eye infection has recurred, one of two things has happened:

1) Your kitten needs a longer course of antibiotics. Sometimes eight days just isn't enough and even though you see an initial improvement after a few days on the antibiotics, the infection can recur.

2) Alternatively, your vet needs to try a different antibiotic. Some kittens' eye infections/upper respiratory tract infections will clear up very well on Ronaxan for example, but sometimes that particular kitten will be resistant to that antibiotic and they might need Betamox instead. Your vet should be prescribing a tetracycline antibiotic in any case as other kinds of antibiotics are not effective for conjunctivitis (inflammation and infection of the eye).

Sometimes you need to change your eye ointment, too. Fucithalmic works well in some cases but if it's chylamidiosis then a broad-spectrum antibiotic cream like chloromycetin might work better. It's important that Dude gets an oral antibiotic as well as an antibiotic eye cream as the infection is likely to be systemic - i.e. residing throughout his whole system rather than just his eyes, in which case it won't clear up with the eye cream alone.

Personally I'd be taking him back to the vet that gave you the first course of antibiotics for another consultation. I'd also pick up some L-Lysine tablets from your chemist or local healthfood store. Lysine interferes with the replication of herpes viruses and it can also play an important role in staving off and reducing the severity of herpes-related symptoms. You can crush up half a tablet and sprinkle it on his food - it has a mild salty taste that cats like! Also, make sure you use boiled water to clean the eye. Black tea that has cooled slightly is great as it's mildly antiseptic and doesn't sting. It can temporarily discolour the fur around the eye though. The warmer the water or tea the better as the kitten will find it soothing and the hotter it is the easier it will be to remove any sticky gunge. Be careful that it's not too hot, though. I also always dab-dry the kitten's face with some kitchen towel after I've cleaned their eyes and before I put on the eye cream because they hate having a damp face!

Hope this helps.

boomerang

Oh, and use a separate piece of cotton wool for each eye, so that you're not cross-infecting or re-infecting.

PinkTulips

don't worry boomerang... have had so many gunky eyes stray kittens pass through i'm an expert at eye care

the odd thing about this is he has no wheezing or other flu symptoms whatsoever, the problem seems to be isolated to the eyes. the fact that they were getting better and that the other one is completely clear now suggests he might have gotton a nick when fighting with one of the other kittens and that became badly inflamed... the vet certainly seemed convinced that was the problem.

it's still bad this morning but it looks a bit less swollen so hopefully it's starting to reduce down a bit

glanman

PinkTulips wrote: »

don't worry boomerang... have had so many gunky eyes stray kittens pass through i'm an expert at eye care

the odd thing about this is he has no wheezing or other flu symptoms whatsoever, the problem seems to be isolated to the eyes. the fact that they were getting better and that the other one is completely clear now suggests he might have gotton a nick when fighting with one of the other kittens and that became badly inflamed... the vet certainly seemed convinced that was the problem.

it's still bad this morning but it looks a bit less swollen so hopefully it's starting to reduce down a bit

My cat is blind has only one eye working and she has just had two kittens, nothing wrong with one eye:) Just keep cleaning with cotton wool buds and a very diluted wash.

boomerang

PinkTulips wrote: »

the odd thing about this is he has no wheezing or other flu symptoms whatsoever, the problem seems to be isolated to the eyes.

In which case my first suspicion (other than trauma) would be FHV or chlamydophilia - both of which require several weeks of antibiotics to clear completely.

Let us know how he gets on!

PinkTulips

great news, it's vastly improved today

the inner eyelid has receded back under the upper eyelid, although it still looks quite raw and painful, and about an hour ago he opened the eye for the first time since thursday morning and looked at me, he seems to be keeping it open and the eye itself is clear and bright, although the eyelid is still half closed due to residual swelling.

at no point has he seemed down or stopped playing and purring but since he opened the eye he's been exceptionally cuddly and full of purrs.

so relieved... guess i was wrong to doubt the vets mystery cow ointment, it seems to be doing a great job!